In December <br />reminders of friends from past lives <br />dropp daily on the mat, renewing ties <br />that every year become more frayed, <br />retain still fewer strands from which <br />to weave our bridges, <br />span the miles and years, <br />my address book fretted with deletions. <br /> <br />In December <br />absent friends crowd back, <br />on paths parallel <br />and diverged. <br />Good news passed on: careers, <br />retirements, births, successes. <br />Bad news passed over: <br />deaths and failures braved; a web <br />of recent memories <br />spun in Christmas letters. <br />Inventories of events, and more <br />deletions. <br /> <br />Every year, more deletions... <br />and I fear the postman will <br />one day in March deliver back <br />a card I’ve sent this month, <br />maybe to an aging friend <br />whom I’ve not contacted <br />in spring or summer on the phone, <br />who now must be deleted, <br />is “not known”.<br /><br />Janice Windle<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/winter-poems-christmas-letters/
